Damaged Brand?

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  • Posted By: midnight05 @ 06/21/2008 2:10:22 PM

    The Republican Party used to represent something worth holding -- fiscal common sense and a respect for the Constitution (Nixon being an exception). It was a good counterbalance for the liberal side and there was a creative tension that made both sides more aware of themselves. Bush has destroyed that and McCain is not the one to bring it back. It is going to take a shellacking and four years out of office to rethink what the GOP should be about

    • Posted By: Nins @ 06/21/2008 2:38:48 PM

      Gosh, Midnight, I agree with you 100%. I'm a Republican who is voting for Obama, because I am appalled at what Bush, Cheney and Rove have done to the GOP. I think that Obama has the balls to stand up to the banking industry and clean up this mess. In eight years, after Obama has succeeded at this, I earnestly hope that the GOP will have learned it's lesson, and present America with a smart, 21st century Republican for President, someone I can really vote for, instead of McCain, an old fogey with a cold war mind who looks like another Cheney-Rove puppet.

      • Posted By: doctorfixit @ 06/22/2008 9:44:22 AM

        The banking industry mess was created by Bill Clinton forcing lenders to create loans to high-risk borrowers, who all walked away from their responsibilities the minute they could,and now the same liberals who forced this outrage down out throats are covering up the real problem and screaming for the taxpayers to be stuck with the tab. The winners will be the banks who contribute so heavily to the Dems, the Dem politicains, and teh Dem lawyers.

        • Posted By: Zig Zag @ 06/22/2008 1:19:36 PM

          You're an idiot. The banking industy mess was caused by corporate greed - a stable of the Republican Party.

          • Posted By: onepoker @ 06/22/2008 6:23:59 PM

            Obamas VP vetter was right at the forefront of the Mortgage meltdown. Fannie May was the leading culprit in corporate evil doing they set the rules and layed out the game.

        • Posted By: Nins @ 06/22/2008 2:57:20 PM

          If this is Clinton's fault, how come those mortgages that failed were originated about 4 years ago, which was 4 years into's Bush's "reign" and 10 years after Clinton changed the banking regulations you refer to? You are correct that Clinton moved to get banks to start lending to average working stiffs, and this was a good thing. But the mortgages that went belly up were given to people with no jobs, no incomes and no assets, given at a zero percent introductory rate with an unspecified later variable rate that turned out to be sky-high. If the banks that wrote these mortgages had wanted their clients to fail, they could not have tried harder to make it happen. And it just so happens that these banks didn't care if their clients failed -- because they had already sold the paper underlying the flimsy mortgages to sucker investors, thinking that they had pulled the scam of the century. My friends in real estate lending were telling me about this three and fours years ago, before the house of cards fell. You can't tell me that the Bush administration knew nothing about what was common industry knowledge. You can't tell me Bush's advisors didn't know that this practice would cause the banks who bought up the paper to fail. Yet Bush didn't step in until after the Bank of Scotland failed, until after Bears Sterns failed.

          Furthermore, the CFTC loophole that has allowed investment banks to stockpile oil and other commodities to artificially inflate the price was put in place by Bush. Congress is moving to close that loophole now, and I can practically guarantee that Bush will veto their efforts.

          • Posted By: onepoker @ 06/22/2008 6:19:41 PM

            Nins I hate to agree with you because you are so often so very wrong so instead of agreeing with you I will jsut not disagree with you.

            The mortgage crises is the result of extremely lax lending rules put in place by Fannie Mae and Freddie mac these have been in place since the clinton administration but because no one was losing money no one bothered to correct this problem. When the Market finally cracked it was a doozey. If someone had stepped in to stop the practice of adjustable rate loans to unqualified people and zero down home plans had been eliminated and Stated income as opposed to verified income we would not be in this mess.

            Of course zero down loans allowed a lot of americans to buy homes that other wise wouldn't have been able too. So if anyone had actually tried to stop these practices they would of been accused of denying poor people the ability to buy homes.

            anyway I will probably never not disagree with you again nins. :)

          • Posted By: Zig Zag @ 06/22/2008 5:39:07 PM

            Yeah, and what Nins said too :-)

    • Posted By: pasteeater @ 06/21/2008 4:49:15 PM

      ok are you showing your age? I used to say that also, I would vote Democrat for progress until things seem to go a little far then vote for a republican to take a step back. It was so easy when a conservative was just that.. they would automatically vote no to a public bathroom because it cost money. what turned me against the republicans was Reagans use of a credit card which GW bush has learned well

  • Posted By: Cazador1972 @ 06/21/2008 10:44:08 PM


    Admittedly, I am biased because I am a liberal but if McCain wants to energize the GOP base, Bloomberg; a liberal, elitist, rich, Jewish man from NYC is not going to help in any way, shape or form. Bloomberg was a Democrat until he switched parties just before the mayoral elections in NYC because the Democratic party had too many candidates! That was the only reason why, he's a RINO (Republican in Name Only).

    But, hey, go ahead!

    • Posted By: onepoker @ 06/22/2008 6:07:05 PM

      I hear hillary might be interested in a vp seat also and MCCain although likely to survive June is 72 years old.

  • Posted By: mexed @ 06/21/2008 1:41:28 PM

    Yes, I am a Democrat but I never in my 63 years felt as strongly as I do this year that I have lost all respect for the Republican party. In the last 8 years Bush was digging the grave but all the party was cheering him on. KARL ROVE has a big part in all this and yet many Republicans still love the guy. That tells me volumns about the sad character of the party. Their leaders have lied to the base, lied to the nation, and they did it systematically day after day after day. They also have found it impossible to break out of their industrial revolution idea of economy. It has been especially clear from shortly into the 8 years that the world was changing rapidly and yet we could not get the leaders to grapple with the situation. Instead they have fought and kicked and screamed at everyone else in the world. We've lost to China above all even as we kissed their feet they have robbed us. And what does McCain and the rest of them say: BRING IT ON - MORE FREE TRADE. The guy has not a clue. I'm not against free trade but he is so urgently seeking something to make him shine above Barack that he has taken even this one issue to the extreeme while Obama is more and more centrist. Hopefully McCain can offer something but those in the party who have some common sense ought to take over and work with their younger members to find out who they are and what they can offer. All that said, I think the terms liberal, republican, democrat, conservative and all the rest have lost most of their traditional understandings. Many of the people of this nation have bolted. They are looking at what one says and what they have done. Not only has the nature of the world politic, the economy, etc changed but the political landscape in this country is seeing a major shift. I do not believe it is a blip.

    • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/21/2008 2:17:57 PM

      You forgot Libby and his TREASON by outing a CIA operative! All to make the trail stop right there, and climb no higher in the admin! which I believe it does. Libby should be dead by firing squad, as is the punishment for TREASON,, but commuted by Bush??? Luster??? NO not in 20 years or more, if they can find what Bush destroyed and fix it! Maybe 15 years give or take!

      • Posted By: doctorfixit @ 06/22/2008 9:40:44 AM

        Get your facts straight. It was anti-Bush operative Richard Armitage who "outed" Plame. She wasn't a covert operative - proof, no one was ever charged with outing a CIA agent. The treason in this story was Plame's husband lying in an official report about Saddam's attempt to obtain yellowcake.

        • Posted By: Zig Zag @ 06/22/2008 1:25:32 PM

          I thought it was Coco the Clown ... oops, I meant Karl Rove. Always getting those two mixed up.

          And the whole yellowcake issue was a simple mistake. Plame's husband thought the Bush administration was talking about yellowcake uranium when Bush was really talking about an actual yellow cake. And Bush was right, there were CIA pictures of Saddam walking out of the corner bakery with a yellow cake and a dozen snickerdoodles.

          So you see, it was all just a silly misunderstanding.

  • Posted By: doctorfixit @ 06/22/2008 9:34:32 AM

    Eleanor Clift 's leftist ideology condemns whatever she writes to hack status. Nevertheless, she manages on occasion to get something right. McCain is busy destroying what's left of the Republican party. He's for open borders, against the Constitution. He hates "corporate America"., which includes all the Mom&Pop businesses that form the backbone of our economy. McCain is a liberal, so he wants everyone to work for MEGA-CORPS who have no problem with socialist government mandates. McCain needs to lose because he courts and craves the approval of the lib-fascists. We need a warrior like Tom Delay who will go after the lib-fascists and destroy them.

    • Posted By: Zig Zag @ 06/22/2008 1:17:49 PM


      Zeig Heil! Deutchland Uberallis!

      Nazi

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 06/22/2008 12:21:36 PM

    Mc Cain's only winning strategy must begin immediately before it is too late. He needs to come right out and declare that he is switching to the Democratic party and will run as a democrat against Obama in November, choose Bloomberg as his vice after Bloomberg re-declares as a democratic vice president. He has already lost all the Republican hard heads anyway and they don't want to give him any campaign money. Obama can choose Hillary as his vice. Then, we can enjoy the Democratic Primary all over again. It will all end in November and life will truly become dull again. Never so much excitement as a good old Democratic Primary. Think about it.

  • Posted By: Factarereal @ 06/22/2008 8:58:19 AM

    Until the Republicans change to politics of sanity, and stop the politics of insane behavior and attacks, the Republican Party will sit on the bench (like soccer game) and watch Obama and the democrats leading the next generation Americans to prosperity and peace.

    Any democrat who is willing to vote for McCBush or McCWAR because of racism has to get this straight. If Obama looses because of his own mistakes there will be no problem. But if Obama looses because people decided to vote according to the color of the skin, then my message is to those people is that black people will do that better in every elections that will be conducted in America. ....as simple as that..

  • Posted By: All4America @ 06/21/2008 3:28:34 PM

    Control of both the Executive AND Legislative powers by the GOP in the period 2001-05 gave way to blatant abuse of powert by the Republicans. As a result, the GOP brand is certainly tarnished - and rightfully so.

    However, "McCain" brings a brand of his own.

    Democrats will certainly increase their majorities in the next Congress. Thus, having Obama - a leftist Democrat - in the White House would be a recipe for unrestrained governmental disaster - with the political pendulum swinging too far to the left.

    We need to make sure we have "Checks and Balances" in place. Voting McCain for President and Democratic downticket would define a safe course for American governance in the next four years.

    • Posted By: WhenStarsTurnBlue @ 06/22/2008 6:19:19 AM

      I agree with you. That's a big part of the reason why I support McCain. Having someone as extremely liberal as Obama with Democrats in control of both houses is just too much power considering liberals are only about every 1 or 2 out of 10 Americans. The rest consider themselves moderate or conservative. As a moderate, I'd prefer someone with more moderate views, even though I've never voted republican before. I just don't want such a liberal government in place as I don't see how that represents me.

    • Posted By: Cazador1972 @ 06/21/2008 10:54:26 PM

      I disagree, just because the Republicans wiped themselves with the constitution doesn't mean the Democrats will lead to "unrestrained governmental disaster". With Bush you had a corrupt, weak, insecure man who shamelessly used a great American tragedy for political gain and a disciplined and corrupt congressional majority who rubber stamped everything to their advantage. Not to mention a minority party without much of a backbone.

      I want Obama to have a majority in congress for at least his first term. It's going to be a tough adjustment to get rid of the deficit and he'll need an un-obstructive congress. It's time we get an adult in the White House.

  • Posted By: okie3 @ 06/21/2008 5:00:56 PM

    OMG Borochoff, what is it going to take for you to see the light? The Republican party hosed you and your son by backing the insurance industry at every turn. But, you knew that when 'Dubya' was governor of Texas when he made sure the majority of commissioners on the insurance commision were Republicans, Did you forget the millions the Bush's made while in the insurance business? C'mon dude, when you step into that privacy of that voting booth, vote Obama - no one will know.

    • Posted By: Cazador1972 @ 06/21/2008 10:56:19 PM


      Hehehe, Okie, your last line could be a slogan for Obama for the reddest of red states!

      • Posted By: Nins @ 06/22/2008 2:07:43 AM

        Cazador, your wry wit always cracks me up! Thanks.

  • Posted By: Nins @ 06/22/2008 2:05:55 AM

    WillNotVote, I just love it when you set yourself up to be schooled. You give a web address for the Obama's page on the Senate.gov website. Each Senator sets up their own pages there. You have directed the reader to Obama's page where he prints, for the world to see, his voting record on every bill that comes before the Senate. Here is that address:

    http://obama.senate.gov/votes/index.cfm?start=1

    You sent the reader to this page because it shows that Obama did not vote on many of the recent bills, and you want to make it look like Obama is asleep on the job. It must be mentioned, however, that Clinton, McCain and Obama have all missed many votes during the campaign season. However, if the reader will take the trouble to page through Obama's voting record, they will see that Obama has been present for all of the important votes. Obama has been present and voted on 62 of the 154 bills before Congress in the current session beginning January 2008. Clinton has voted on 56 of these 154 bills. And McCain, who had already won the primary and didn't have to start campaigning against Obama until three weeks ago, McCain voted on only 33 of 154 bills.

    As I have exposed in one of my earlier blogs, McCain missed more than half of his votes, even before he started running for President. In the First Session of the 110th Congress (2007), McCain missed a whopping 56% of his votes. McCain doesn't want you to know this, so when you go to his Senate web page, there is no tab to click to see his voting record (http://mccain.senate.gov). An American who wants to know how McCain votes has to look it up on the Library of Congress website (not user friendly) or go to the Washington Post website:

    http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/votes/

    While you are there, pay special attention to McCain's votes on March 13 and 14, 2008. On those days we know he was present, because he voted on 22 bills. But he refused to vote on 22 other bills. He failed to vote on bills concerning border security, alien removal and English in the workplace, even though he has set himself up as the candidate who wants immigration reform favorable to Hispanics. He also failed to vote on the bills regarding efficient energy production, even though he claims to be in favor of this. He must not be very much in favor of efficient energy and immigration reform since her refused to vote even though he was present. As for Obama and Clinton, they were both present those days, and they both voted on all 44 bills.

    McCain knows that public perception is all that matters, so he gives a news conference and says he supports certain issues, even though he refuses to vote in favor of them. He knows that most Americans never take the time to look up his voting record, and he makes sure that his Senate web page doesn't include this information.

    I find it ironic that your blogger name is "WillNotVote." Did you get that name from John McCain?

  • Posted By: HolyRoller @ 06/21/2008 10:12:16 AM

    The DNC and Hussein Obama, have put themselves in another corner. Planning high gasoline prices, to anger voters to vote Dem., and opposing drilling as an answer, has left many wondering. What's up with that? Don't believe me? Check Rassmussen. They are a little more credible than the latest NewsWeak poll........AND this was BEFORE Sen McCain announced, his support.

    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Email to a FriendAdvertisement
    Most voters favor the resumption of offshore drilling in the United States and expect it to lower prices at the pump, even as John McCain has announced his support for states that want to explore for oil and gas off their coasts.

    A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey???conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue--finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).

    NOBAMA!!!

    • Posted By: kendrew @ 06/21/2008 11:24:32 PM

      HolyRoller,, If you really beleive McSane I can't rememeber what state I'm in, or the difference between a shite and sunni, Oh and my barbie doll wife copies and pastes cookie recipe's in parents magazine andoh lets so off shore drilling and oh lets build 45 new nuclear plants and oh ObamaBwent to the ground in the midwest to help load sandbags so I guess I better go too only let me go when Bush goes because I want my head up his butt, and oh I think tomorrow I will say something else idiotic because I can't really think with my own mind because I don't really have one, Oh by the way whenObama was helping on the ground in the midwest I was golfing sorry america I don't really care about you but I gotta get in their because if they ever find out what damage Bush has done to this country and other countries with lies about the war plus every other horrible mistake has made I won't be able to hide all the information, if I hide it, it will look like I'm not running his third term. I hope God is who you plan to vote for because if McCain wins we may as well just not have the united states, we will be in war for the rest of our lives, oh yeah he said 100 years and now it's 2013. What a great lying candidate. God strikes liars but you should already no this you idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Posted By: the-commish @ 06/21/2008 3:59:07 PM


      Obama's nomination....GOOD!

      Obama's election....GREAT!

      Unholy Roller's heart attack at Obama's inauguration....PRICELESS!

    • Posted By: Nor-Cal for Obama @ 06/21/2008 1:00:59 PM

      HollyRoller - if you claim to be religious, you really ought to stop lying so often.

      New data released today from Rasmussen shows that Democrats are trusted more than Republicans on all ten key issues tracked regularly by Rasmussen Reports.

      84% of conservatives think offshore drilling should be allowed, but only 31% of liberals agree. Perhaps key to the presidential election, 54% of moderates also favor lifting the ban.



      http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/62_agree_with_mccain_on_need_for_offshore_drilling

      Get your numbers right.

  • Posted By: letthewhitedovesing1 @ 06/21/2008 9:48:12 PM

    I'll just quote Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and Democratic Presidential candidate made sometime before the Iowa caucuses, that McCain's going about the Iraq War "All wrong." And this is a man I admire -- Joe Biden. I tend to take his position on world politics as gospel. If Joe Biden says something, I believe it. He certainly knows what he's talking about. And, what he said about McCain wasn't good.

  • Posted By: Factarereal @ 06/21/2008 5:48:18 PM

    John McCWAR will loose. Don't waste your times on him.....LOL

  • Posted By: KYJurisDoctor @ 06/21/2008 5:18:18 PM

    John McCain, who I voted for in 2000, CANNOT do it, as he slowly MORPHS into George Bush!

  • Posted By: nlehto @ 06/21/2008 3:03:27 PM

    The southern strategy of McPhillips/Barone is dead.

    The moral authority the Republicans captured in 1968 is dead.

    The liberal big spender -- the tax and spend argument -- was defeated the the last 8 years.

    There is a remaking/remixing/rejuggling underway.

    Beginning of story.

  • Posted By: artythesmarty @ 06/21/2008 2:57:16 PM

    There was no 24 hour cable during Nixon/McGovern or Johnson/Goldwater so no ads to sell. This race is over already and TV in a panic as Olympics will decimate cable ratings. So look for Sean, O'Reilley et al to come up with a lame poll in Aug/Sep showing Mccain within a margin of error like 6 points in Fla, Pa, and Ohio and saying if he gets all 3 he can win. See Drudge and Newsmax display prominently. It does not matter-the Iraq war is a toxic that will never go away and is why Obama beat Hilary. Imagine McCain telling us that the war was being won in Sept and that we should continue. It is not going to happen

  • Posted By: Nins @ 06/21/2008 2:34:44 PM

    Readers, be informed, and beware! Sam Bodman, US Energy Secretary, is a Bush appointed Yes-man. Bodman states that insufficient production is making oil prices soar. Bush wants you to think that the OPEC countries are responsible for high oil prices, but the truth is, OPEC has been significantly increasing production over the past several months. Where is all that oil going? It's being stockpiled by US investment banks, who are creating a fake shortage to drive up the price. Congress has already started to investigate this criminal practice. Bush, who has deregulated the banking industry, tries to blame it on OPEC. By now you should be familiar with Bush's MO: he says you should be very afraid of Muslims.

    Who you should really be afraid of are investment bankers at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Check this out:

    Michael Masters of Master Capital Management (a global investment manager) testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs a couple of weeks ago. Quotes from his testimony:

    "Today, Index Speculators are pouring billions of dollars into the commodities futures markets, speculating that commodity prices will increase. In the popular press the explanation given for rising oil prices is the increased demand from China. According to the DOE, China's demand for petroleum has increased in the last five years from 1.88 billion barrels to 2.8 billion barrels, an increase of 920 billion barrels. Over the same five year period, Index Speculators' demand for petroleum futures has increased by 848 million barrels. THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM CHINA. Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively adding EIGHT TIMES as much oil to their own stockpile as the US Government has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years."

    "The Senate has asked the question "Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?" And my unequivocal answer is "YES." In this testimony I will explain that investment banks are one of, if not the primary, factors affecting commodities prices today. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute to price determination in the commodities markets; I am here to expose a fast-growing yet virtually unnoticed factor, and one that presents a problem that can be expediently corrected through legislative policy action..."

    The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. They're supposed to be protecting us from these kinds of abuses, but Bush allowed loopholes in the CFTC regulations that you can drive a truck through. An oil truck, that is.

    Links to Masters' Senate testimony, and 2 articles:
    http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/052008Masters.pdf
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20011.htm
    http://globalresearch.ca/

  • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/21/2008 1:11:57 PM

    Luster? Restore?,mm,NO!

  • Posted By: jb41908 @ 06/21/2008 11:36:12 AM

    Let me guess your solution for McCain to fix the Republican brand, Ellen: lurch left.

  • Posted By: techie22 @ 06/21/2008 11:32:13 AM

    Republicans will continue to lie because that's what they do.

    They are unable to admit the truth because it will prove they were not too bright in their decisions. Therefore they will perpetuate the "untruths" and continue to rape everyone else with their greed and hate.

  • Posted By: ChicoCDM @ 06/21/2008 9:29:50 AM

    This is a democratic propaganda opion editorial. I can't stand both parties equally. I've come to realize there is NO SUCH THING as unbiased news reporting when it comes to politics. PERIOD!

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